Open a small, cozy "superstore" that includes a coffee & tea house, new and/or used books, LOCAL and used music, natural/whole foods, and a small art gallery (maybe with studio space for a resident artist) as well as a consulting business

When we were planning our recent move, I went to my boss at work and reminded her that I hated Miami. She already knew that, and told me that she shared my feelings. I told her that my wife and I decided on a new home and asked if she would be interested in keeping me on as a consultant. She was.

So on the advice of a couple friends, I setup an LLC in the new state, and am now the proud owner, president, CEO, founder, etc of my very first business.

In the beginning, I am starting with simple data consulting, reporting, database analysis and administration. SQL and whatever. I can also do work in Access, if an interactive interface is needed, but interfaces are so time-consuming to design, that I’d rather keep to the raw reporting

My last job is my first client, and I am just waiting on paperwork to get started, now.

My wife is our CFO and more. I have no idea what all titles to bestow upon her, as she does such a broad range or not-necessarily-related things that it’s mind-blowing to think about. She secured our second client, a store/cafe. She was handling their event materials, web design, financials, and more, while participating in sales, event coordination, marketing, and tons more. She’s a master of all trades. So she brought in our second client, and has already been working for them, so I guess that technically qualifies as our First client.

While this was a minor aspect of the ultimate business plan, it is a vital one, and the simplest one to commence without a permanent space. So we can work on the road (and my wife did, from the hotels we stayed at on the move out here), and from home (where we’ve already setup an office).

It’s really an awesome thing, and I’m very excited to work on growing the business.

Ok, I got it. This is awesome.

You already know this is going to have to be in a smaller, progressive town. And if you didn’t know that, well, I did. So here’s a great addendum to the plan.

I’m going to run for Mayor.

I will have to get pretty well established in the town, shake a few hands, make sure people know me, and that I know them. Then once things are running pretty smoothly, and the kids have had a chance to grow up a bit so they won’t need constant care, I’ll run for Mayor.

Don’t like my policy on something? Come in for a cup of tea and we can talk about it.

The best part of this whole idea for the cafe is that the more I think about it, the better it sounds.

Wouldn’t it be great, since I’ll be opening this in a sort of hippie-centric community (close to nature!), to also offer some sort of travel arrangements. Tours? Maps? Kayak rentals? Or maybe just develop such a wealth of knowledge of the local area that we could be known as the best place in town for advice (gratis, of course). Yes, this would be very good.

I know of a guy in California who dreams of opening up a bike/coffee shop. Wouldn’t that be cool?

So I create a new goal that’s some sort of interesting clusterfuck of what I find interesting, and suddenly 3 more people want to do exactly the same thing? Weird, guys.

Anyhow, that’s not why I changed the goal. I discovered that as I was coming to change the goal. When I was in Savannah, GA with GF, we went to this coffee & tea shop that sold all organic fair-trade coffee and a few snackens. Cool. We also went to a natural foods store that had a great selection of things in a pretty small space. Also cool. They happened to be right next door to each other. Tremendously cool.

And I realized that the two complement one another too well. I want something like that.

Also, in addition to the little art gallery I’ve been envisioning, I think it would be awesome to have some small studio space for one or two artists that we could rotate out every 4, 6, or 12 months.

Finally, I wanted to focus the music goal to a pin point. We will sell used CDs. The only new CDs for sale will be from local artists. No big label acts will be on the shelves unless we get a used copy.

All excess food will be donated.
Profits will be used to support me and my family, grow the business, and for philanthropic ventures.

I’m sure there are more revisions to come.

Yes, all of these things. I changed my goal from “Start a business” to “Open a coffee/tea/book/music/art/etc shop and consulting business”. Talk about clearly defined goals!

I like talking. I like helping people. I like doing things for people. I like coffee, tea, books, music, art, and definitely etc. Etc is great! It leaves so much to the imagination.

I also like computers, KINDA. I like databases, specifically. More specifically, I like using computers and databases to help organize things. I like organization, ultimately. The rest is a means to the end.

This will not happen soon. I don’t have the finances or the credit for it. Miami would NOT be a suitable place to attempt this. One day, though, it will happen. One year, actually. About 4 or 5 years, actually. Once I’ve moved somewhere more suitable.

This place will be awesome.

I have this un-lined blank book that I got a couple years ago. It’s pretty big, and just begging to be filled all up with notes, sketches, and the like. A couple days ago, inspiration struck. I got an idea. The idea spawned a name, and the whole thing spawned a gob of ideas for slogans, or whathaveyou. Last night, I had another thought on a slogan that I particularly liked.

The business is computer-related, which is not at all what I want to be doing. However, it’s specifically data-related, which I enjoy a bit more, and which will afford me the opportunity to work in virtually ANY vertical market or field, so it isn’t really limiting. I could take this anywhere from health care (where I work now) to insurance to ecology or biology or sociology or really anywhere.

This, to me, is the exciting part.

So I need to refine my thoughts on this, put together a plan, and then set that plan in motion. It’s funny, because I’m an AWFUL salesperson, so I have no idea how I’m going to really set this in motion, but that’s not the part that intimidates me. It was the actual idea stage that I was intimidated by, and I feel like I’ve already hurdled that obstacle.